I think he's a better storyteller than thinker.
Interesting statistics, though, and certainly a nice bit of motivation for those of us arming for our own battles with Goliaths in the near future (which, I would think, would be pretty much everyone here with a startup).
The reason there isn't much pressing in the NBA is because of the ball handling ability of an NBA point guard. Teams press at the end of a game to either manage the clock when ahead or as a desperate move when behind. Otherwise, NBA players are good enough to ensure easy baskets against a press.
A great article about the Stat Movement in the NBA was written by Michael Lewis a few weeks back:
http://www.nba.com/media/lakers/0903mailbag_battierkobe.jpg
Getting a "hand in the face" of a shooter is rarely more literal than that. It must drive Kobe nuts (though he would never admit it).
Will be interesting to see if Battier can disrupt Kobe in the upcoming series.
Ranadivé might have hit on a strategy that works brilliantly... for middle school... if your goal is to place highly, and not to actually be champions. But that does underscore the point of the article, which is to understand the game that you are playing, your strengths, and your goals.
I dug this up googling 'Pitino Knicks full court press':
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/14/sports/pro-basketball-piti...
"Virtually everything that could go wrong for New York today did go wrong. The Knicks were outrebounded, 55-34. They shot 38.5 percent from the field. Johnny Newman, their second-leading playoff scorer, shot 0 for 8 from the field and did not score. And Chicago had little trouble dissecting New York's full-court press."
This correlates with the other comment about the press not working in the NBA because the point guards are too good. The press did work for awhile for Pitino when he coached the Knicks, but evidently the other teams eventually developed counter measures that worked. He also coached the Celtics with an overall losing record. I'm not sure how much he pressed with the Celtics.
I suppose the overall moral is that unconventional tactics work for awhile, but if the opponent is also willing to innovate eventually skill, strength and other traits will prevail. The full court press is predicated on out working your opponents, but no one in the history of the NBA worked harder than Michael Jordan, who had some talent and skill to go with it.